Former Panmanian dictator to appear in US court

Former Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega, to be released from a US prison in September, was due in court in Florida today for a hearing on an extradition request from France.

Noriega, 72, is to leave a Miami prison on September 9 after serving 15 years for drug trafficking and racketeering. He wants to fly immediately to Panama to fight a conviction in the killings of two political opponents, his lawyers have said.

But American prosecutors are pushing for his extradition to France, where Noriega was convicted in absentia in 1999 on money-laundering charges. He was accused of using drug profits in part to buy luxurious apartments in Paris.

Noriega is set to appear before Senior US District Judge William Hoeveler, the same jurist who presided over his original trial. Hoeveler will decide whether the US extradition attempt is valid, although it is unclear when he will rule.

A magistrate judge will separately decide whether Noriega should actually be sent to France.

Federal prosecutors have said that Hoeveler should allow that judge to rule first – a hearing in his court is set for August 28.

Noriega’s lawyers argue that Hoeveler declared Noriega a prisoner of war, a designation that they say requires he be sent home to Panama under the Geneva Conventions. The US says the Geneva Conventions cannot be used to block his extradition.

US forces captured Noriega after a 1989 military invasion ordered by then President George HW Bush in part because of the Panamanian’s links to drug traffickers. It later emerged that Noriega had been on the CIA payroll for years, assisting US interests throughout Latin America, including acting as liaison to Cuban President Fidel Castro.

In 1992, Noriega was tried and convicted in the US of accepting bribes to allow shipments of US-bound cocaine through Panama. His 30-year sentence has been reduced for good behaviour.

Panamanians, meanwhile, are split on whether Noriega should be imprisoned in their country. A poll conducted in July before the US announced plans to try to extradite him to France found 47 percent of Panamanians wanted him imprisoned their country and 44 percent wanted him sent to a third country.